College Graduates Boo Commencement Speakers Over AI Remarks as Job Fears Mount

The class of 2026 has heard enough about AI, thanks

From campus ceremonies to Linux communities and academic journals, resistance to LLM evangelism is getting louder It's exam and graduation time in the academic year, and some students are making their anti-AI feelings heard. It's not the only place. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave the commencement speech to the graduating class at the University of Arizona on Sunday, and his line "The question is whether you will have shaped artificial intelligence" was met with a loud chorus of boos and jeering, as The Guardian reports. Not for the first time: last week, students at the University of Central Florida also booed real estate executive Gloria Caulfield for calling AI "the next industrial revolution." NBC's report on Schmidt's speech has a video clip that includes both reactions, as well as a similarly negative reception to pro-AI remarks by record producer Scott Borchetta, giving another commencement speech at Middle Tennessee State University. Borchetta is the boss of Big Machine, the former label of Taylor Swift, whose six-year battle with the company has its own compendious Wikipedia article. As no stranger to controversy, Schmidt is probably not too worried. The Register reported on him blaming working from home for Google's stumbles in the AI race in 2024. However, it's notable that these captains of industry appear surprised by anti-AI sentiment. Granted, this vulture is an arch-skeptic in this matter, but we are noticing increasing levels of resistance and pushback against the rise of LLM bots. Earlier this month, we reported that both Fedora and Ubuntu were planning to include more AI. Since then, there has been sufficient negative sentiment from the Fedora community that the Fedora AI Developer Desktop Initiative community initiative proposal, approved at the start of May, is now blocked by two "-1" votes. One of these is from Justin Wheeler, who, as we noted, wrote a blog post about Fedora's AI-Assisted Contributions Policy. He and Red Hatter Miro Hrončok both changed their votes. Other examples of recent writing about the changing positions on AI that we've seen in the software development world include "I don't think AI will make your processes go faster," and a long and thoughtful piece from Baldur Bjarnason called "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born."

Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

As artificial intelligence casts a shadow over career prospects, it is becoming an unwelcome subject at this season's college commencements. At several campuses, graduates have interrupted speakers with stadium-wide boos when the topic turned to AI. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced repeated jeers over the weekend during his keynote address to about 10,000 University of Arizona graduates on the rise of AI. "It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have," Schmidt said, as booing began to build in the audience. "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you," Schmidt responded as the boos continued. "There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating ... and I understand that fear." To students the topic felt tone deaf, said Olivia Malone, a 22-year-old University of Arizona graduate bound for law school. "His speech was incredibly disrespectful to students," said Malone. "We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?" Similar responses to keynote speakers who touched on AI at other universities highlight a pervasive sense of anxiety among today's college students. Across campuses and in a multitude of recent surveys, students say they are trying to figure out which skills, majors and jobs won't be rendered useless by AI. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between ages 14 and 29, found increasingly negative attitudes toward AI. About half of Gen Z teens and adults say they use AI daily or weekly. But anger about the technology has increased since a year ago, while excitement and hopefulness about AI is declining. Another speaker, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield, also faced boos when she highlighted the advent of artificial intelligence during her keynote this month at the University of Central Florida. "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution," Caulfield said, as boos erupted, to her surprise. She turned around to ask those behind her, "What happened?" "OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?" said Caulfield, who is vice president of strategic alliances at the Tavistock Development Company in Orlando. "Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives," she said, prompting cheers. "And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hand," she said to more jeering. A similar response met music executive Scott Borchetta when he spoke to the graduating class of Middle Tennessee State University about how AI is shaping the music industry. "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," said Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, as the students in caps and gowns booed. "I know it. Deal with it ... Do something about it. It's a tool. Make it work for you." Schmidt offered a similar message to graduates: Their fear is rational, but they have the power to shape how AI develops. The advice didn't land well with students like Malone, who said the former Google executive's speech was more self-serving than inspirational. "It felt like a big advertisement. It felt like the longest Gemini ad ever," said Malone, noting that the choice of Schmidt as keynote speaker had also been controversial because his name appears in the Epstein files. "Everybody I was sitting by was really hooting and hollering about that, yelling, 'Epstein files! Epstein files!'" Part of the backlash from graduating students stems from the dismal job market they're entering. The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years. Sami Wargo just graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where an AI expert was the undergraduate commencement speaker despite a student petition demanding that the school find someone else. "Given how AI has become an increasing threat towards our jobs, especially for our graduating class, we thought it was a little bit tone deaf," said Wargo, who majored in digital media and minored in advertising. Chris Duffey, an AI evangelist at Adobe who recently used AI to "co-author" a book titled "Superhuman Innovation: Transforming Business with Artificial Intelligence," took the stage anyway. "Innovation," he told the students, "will reveal what can be done, but only you can decide what should be done." Wargo said she joined other students around her in booing his message. The 21-year-old has applied for around 30 jobs but hasn't landed one yet. Many of the job descriptions say applicants must "collaborate with AI," but "I don't know what that means," she said, noting that most of her classes banned her from using AI. Having to be reminded of all the uncertainty at their graduation, she said, was another "little dent in what was supposed to be a celebratory day." ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The new college graduation ritual: booing AI

Driving the news: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt drew repeated boos Friday while discussing AI at the University of Arizona's commencement. * Real estate executive Gloria Caulfield called AI "the next industrial revolution" at the University of Central Florida's commencement, and was immediately drowned out by boos from arts and humanities graduates. "Okay, I struck a chord," she said. * Music executive Scott Borchetta, who discovered Taylor Swift in 2005, told Middle Tennessee State University graduates that "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," prompting boos. He retorted: "deal with it... Like I said, it's a tool. You can hear me now or pay me later." * After an AI system skipped several students' names at Glendale Community College in Arizona, President Tiffany Hernandez blamed the technology for the errors -- and immediately was booed. The other side: Not every commencement speaker who mentioned AI was jeered. * When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Carnegie Mellon graduates that AI will be a net positive and cause "every industry to change," but that "the answer is not to fear the future," he drew no audible pushback. By the numbers: Roughly 42% of Gen Z say AI will harm job opportunities and wages for people like them, compared with 33% of millennials, 39% of Gen X and 37% of baby boomers, according to the latest Axios Harris Poll released Tuesday. * Those concerns show up in job hunting data too, with 43% of Americans aged 15 to 34 saying it's a good time to find a job, compared to 64% of those 55 and older -- a 21-point gap, per Gallup. Zoom in: Concerns of the AI boogeyman are not without merit. * A slew of top companies, including Meta, Pinterest and Block recently cited AI automating some tasks as they announced layoffs. Between the lines: Schmidt seemed almost apologetic to the graduates during his speech, acknowledging uncertainty about AI's long-term impact. * "There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create," he said. * Still, he compared being AI-adverse to missing a defining opportunity: "When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat, you just get on. Graduates, the rocket ship is here." Zoom out: AI is creating more jobs than it's killing, and fewer CEOs now expect AI to reduce hiring than they did last year, per EY-Parthenon research. * Huang warned graduates that "AI is not likely to replace you, but someone using AI better than you might." * Despite fears over job displacement, young people are increasingly using AI to help with homework, brainstorming, news consumption and entertainment -- suggesting they see AI as a useful tool. The bottom line: Young people aren't vehemently anti-AI -- they're just scared of being left in the digital dust. Axios' Avery Lotz contributed to this reporting.

'Learn to read the room': ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is the latest commencement speaker to get booed for mentioning AI

* Eric Schmidt is the latest AI advocate to get booed by students * The University of Arizona class of 2026 weren't impressed by his AI remarks * There's been a growing backlash to the tech from graduates Less than a week after University of Florida students booed real estate executive Gloria Caulfield for mentioning AI at their commencement speech, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been given the same treatment for the same reason at the University of Arizona. "You will help shape artificial intelligence," seems to be the line that the students took the most umbrage at, as per The Verge, though Schmidt also acknowledged the worries and fears that come along with AI -- including significant changes in the jobs market. With Caulfield's address, it was the "artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution" line that got the loudest boos, while The Register reports on a similar reaction to mentions of AI at the Middle Tennessee State University by record producer Scott Borchetta. It seems like the graduating class of 2026 really aren't ready to hear about the benefits of AI at the moment, and are much more concerned about an AI apocalypse arriving -- a worry driven by a rise in deepfakes, hallucinations, energy shortages, and out-of-control agentic bots. An 'insane message' to deliver Former CEO Of Google Receives Massive Backlash For Praising AI At Graduation from r/singularity Most of the online reaction to Schmidt's speech was negative. "Learn to read the room," advised one Redditor, while another described it as an "insane message" to deliver to new graduates who are being told that AI might take up all the jobs they're about to apply for. For others, it's not that AI is inherently bad as a technology, but rather that AI companies and regulators aren't doing enough to help those who will be negatively affected by it. There's a real concern that the rich will get richer and leave everyone else behind. We're at an interesting crunch point where we've got AI companies increasingly hyping up the technology, while many businesses struggle to use it effectively, and those who think they may be displaced by AI continue to rail against it. As for Schmidt's former company, Google, it's hosting its annual I/O show later today, and there should be a lot more AI packed into the announcements: if you want to hear what the future holds (and cheer or boo accordingly), you can follow along online. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

College students are booing commencement speakers celebrating AI, but the wave of hate hasn't stopped them from using it to cheat on their exams | Fortune

For today's college students, attitudes toward AI can seem paradoxical. On one hand, they've made their ire toward the technology clear: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was met with hisses during his commencement remarks at the University of Arizona's graduation ceremony on Sunday when he invoked the inevitability of a future with artificial intelligence. "The question is not whether AI will shape the world. It will," Schmidt said, pausing for a moment as students booed. "The question is whether you will have shaped artificial intelligence." Just days earlier, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield told graduating students at the University of Central Florida, "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution." One audience member jeered in response, "AI sucks." But the outward disgust toward the AI boom doesn't tell the full story of the 2026 graduating class's relationship to AI. The same cohort is also adopting the technology at a rapid clip, with 57% of U.S. college students reporting using the AI tools in their coursework weekly, and 20% using it daily, according to the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education study published last month. Some are even using this tool illicitly in the classroom. Jacob Shelley, an associate professor of health law at Western University, said he was overwhelmingly convinced his students cheated on the final exam for one of his classes, with many using AI tools to do so. "The results were anomalous," he told Fortune, noting 8% of his class getting a perfect score on the multiple choice section of the exam while many either struggled on the essay portion or gave written responses with content Shelley hadn't taught in class. "That just never happened in 20 years of teaching." Princeton University faculty voted last week to rescind its 133-year-old honor code and proctor all in-person exams to mitigate cheating using AI. Stanford University senior Theo Baker wrote in a New York Times op-ed this week that "cheating has become omnipresent" at his college. But where some see a contradiction, experts see a peek into the minds of young graduates -- the first generation of college students to experience their four-year undergraduate experience with tools like ChatGPT, launched in late 2022, at their fingertips. Maitraye Das, a computer science professor at Northeastern University, studies Gen Z's attitudes toward AI use, and a report she published last year found most college students use AI, but many don't disclose it. She identified the phenomenon as a form of cognitive dissonance, a psychological pattern in which a set of behaviors may contradict a belief system, leaving individuals to alter either their attitude or actions toward a certain topic. In the case of her research, Das found students feared using AI would impede their critical thinking skills and learning goals. But at the same time, they felt they couldn't afford not to use AI tools, feeling they would be left behind by peers continuing to use the technology. "The job market already seems precarious to them, and so even the students that did acknowledge that, 'Oh, if I just use AI to do my homework, that will stunt my critical thinking,' they still kept using it because the cost of not using it felt higher to them," Das said. Indeed, a stagnant job market, along with tech leaders warning of mass AI job displacement, has instilled fear in many recent grads. In March, Anthropic released a report revealing that AI could theoretically take over most tasks in business and finance, management, computer science, math, legal, and office administration roles, including 94% of tasks for computer and math workers. Concerns around AI taking certain jobs have already begun to materialize as anecdotal evidence, despite no widespread proof of AI markedly changing the labor market. Tech layoffs have topped 110,000 in the first five months of this year alone, with companies like Snap announcing it would eliminate 16% of roles, about 1,000 employees, as it leans into AI. While students see AI as a threat, Das said, the proliferation of AI in the workplace, as well as in schools -- where last year about 30% of teachers said they use AI at least weekly -- has also created a justification for them to use the technology, even if it means cheating or keeping quiet about their own AI use. "They are thinking, 'People rather than me are using AI. Why am I held to a different standard? Why can't I use AI?'" Das said. "So instead of disclosing their AI use or limiting their AI use, they reframe the social context to make their behavior around secretly using AI to feel more acceptable to themselves." Widespread messaging about AI in commencement speeches -- typically coming from AI stakeholders -- have only grown the chip on Gen Z's shoulder around AI use, according to Das. Skyrocketing tech stock valuations and the growth of the Magnificent 7 have created a K-shape of who stands to benefit from the technology's growth. "Students feel that there's a corporate mouthpiece narrative," Das said. "They are facing this very real fear of not landing a job, and so especially the tech CEOs, when they come to these commencement stages and encourage and cheerlead AI, I think students feel a disconnect there." Shelley, the health law professor, agreed that students cheating with AI is less of an endorsement of the technology and rather a survival tactic -- perhaps even one they resent. "AI is going to replace them, at least a lot of them, and they know that, and we're pretending that it won't," he said. "I think they see through it. So students are responsible, but I don't really blame them here." Some of the blame, Shelley argued, lies with educational institutions themselves, which have advocated for students to use AI. Two years ago, Arizona State University launched a collaboration with OpenAI to develop AI tools for higher education. But overall financial aid for colleges is lower now than it was 15 years ago, forcing some students to take part-time jobs. Now strapped for time, they feel like AI is the only way to accomplish their assignments, Shelley said. Das noted that AI authorities, including higher education institutions, have done a poor job identifying what jobs will be created as a result of AI and subsequently encouraging the appropriate form of upskilling. The overall effect is students feeling disenfranchised from their future, resorting to shortcuts that may ultimately not prepare them with the tools or values to thrive as they take their next steps into the world, the experts warned. "The worst thing we could do is blame students here," Shelley said. "It's our job to teach them, to nurture them, to inspire them, to guide them. It's our job to educate them, and it's our responsibility as society to take a deep look and go, 'Why has this happened?'"

Recent commencement speeches show students are souring on AI. How deep does the disapproval go?

Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. She previously worked at "60 Minutes," CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program. Public attitudes toward AI seem to be evolving as quickly as the technology permeates society. That dynamic was on full display on Sunday, when University of Arizona students jeered former Google CEO Eric Schmidt during his commencement speech as he discussed the future of AI, according to an online video of his remarks posted by the school. Commencement speakers at the University of Central Florida and Middle Tennessee State University also elicited negative reactions when they mentioned AI in their speeches, according to NBC News. The backlash reflects a broader tension over AI: Companies and executives are promoting it as a productivity breakthrough, while many workers, especially younger Americans trying to start careers, fear it could narrow their path into stable employment. Recent data from Gallup captures the growing pessimism: 43% of people ages 15 to 34 think it's a good time to find a job, down from 75% in 2022, and 21 percentage points lower than those 55 and older. This may "partly reflect anxiety about automation and artificial intelligence displacing entry-level roles," Gallup said. To make matters more complicated, recent graduates are entering the workforce at a historically challenging time in the labor market, marked by muted hiring. Data from the Labor Department shows the unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds stood at 7.6% in April, above the overall rate of 4.3%. Some recent grads describe sending hundreds of applications before landing a role. "They're worried about AI and creativity, they're worried about AI and impact on relationships, like adults in general, they're worried about AI in jobs," said Colleen McClain, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center who specializes in internet and technology. It's not just college students, with the broader American population also voicing mixed feelings about the potential benefits of AI. A recent CBS News Poll found that many people report being content to hand over more tedious tasks, such as proofreading, to AI to save time. Many corporate executives also tout AI as a way for businesses to boost productivity and profits. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently told CBS News that the technology could shorten the workweek and deliver major scientific breakthroughs. However, data from the Pew Research Center suggests that as Americans become more familiar with the technology, they are also becoming more skeptical of it. "One trend we've seen is that Americans have become more wary of AI over time," McClain said. "We see that since we started tracking these views in 2021, concern has increased." Part of that wariness is showing up in concerns about the job market: 42% of Americans think AI will eliminate jobs in their field, while 45% think AI companies will hurt the economy, according to separate CBS News polling in 2025. There's a large disconnect between the general public and AI experts when it comes to how AI will impact jobs, McClain said. According to a Pew Research survey released in 2025, 73% of AI experts think AI will have a very or somewhat positive impact on work, compared to just 23% of U.S. adults. While economists say AI's impact on the labor market remains relatively muted so far, there are some signs of strain: New research from Goldman Sachs shows that job openings in occupations highly exposed to AI -- where the technology is likely to substitute for human labor -- are now below pre-pandemic levels. Vulnerable professions include legal assistants, proofreaders, telephone operators and insurance claims clerks. While AI isn't killing vast numbers of jobs, the shift suggests the technology is already rewiring parts of the labor market as companies seek ways to cut costs and boost productivity. For instance, the fastest-growing job title for young U.S. workers on LinkedIn is "AI engineer," the networking company recently found. Between 2023 and 2025, LinkedIn added 639,000 AI-related job postings in the U.S., 75,000 of which were AI engineer roles. It remains to be seen whether AI will deliver robust job growth and how the labor market would fare if, as some speculate, an AI bubble were to burst. History provides a cautionary tale. At the peak of the dotcom era boom, the Congressional Budget Office projected the economy would create a million jobs or more each year from 2001 to 2003, Dean Baker, an economist and the founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), said in a post on the think tank's website Monday. However, those jobs never materialized. In fact, the economy ended up losing jobs in 2001 and 2002 and gaining just a small share (100,000) in 2003, according to Baker. He said it's difficult to predict the timing of a possible AI bubble and the damage it will cause. But one thing is clear: "The part of the story that we can be certain about is that, as was the case with the last two bubbles, the economic forecasters will miss it," he said.

The students booing AI aren't Luddites

It's graduation week, which means the emissaries of the nation's elite are now descending onto college campuses to deliver the much-discussed and, they hope, indelibly quotable college commencement address. These speeches are their own sort of literary genre. The celebrities, politicians, and titans of industry invited to give these keynotes must seem intelligent enough, but not bore -- or worse, antagonize -- their audience. Typically, this involves a speaker integrating a clever life story, select nuggets of eternal wisdom, a few trite asides to campus lore, and well-placed references to current affairs into one propulsive and affecting speech. The problem this year, however, is that the news of the day is artificial intelligence, and students just don't want to hear it. In the past week or so, at least three graduation speakers have brought up artificial intelligence in their remarks, only to incur jeers from graduates. This includes Gloria Caulfield, a real estate developer who called AI the next "industrial revolution" while speaking to students at the University of Central Florida. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who delivered his address last week at the University of Arizona, hedged and acknowledged fears about the technology before encouraging students to help shape its future anyway. He, too, was derided by the crowd. Music executive Scott Borchetta offered, perhaps, the most off-putting AI commentary of the bunch, and almost taunted the boisterous, disapproving students he encountered at Middle Tennessee State University. "It's a tool," he sneered at attendees, "You can hear me now or pay me later." (Though not a speech, AI also attracted scorn at Glendale Community College, in Arizona, after a school official bashfully revealed that they'd use the technology to read students' names aloud, only for the system to malfunction during the ceremony.)

Graduates Are Booing Pep Talks on AI at College Commencements

As artificial intelligence casts a shadow over career prospects, it is becoming an unwelcome subject at this season's college commencements. At several campuses, graduates have interrupted speakers with stadium-wide boos when the topic turned to AI. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced repeated jeers over the weekend during his keynote address to about 10,000 University of Arizona graduates on the rise of AI. "It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have," Schmidt said, as booing began to build in the audience. "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you," Schmidt responded as the boos continued. "There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating ... and I understand that fear." To students the topic felt tone deaf, said Olivia Malone, a 22-year-old University of Arizona graduate bound for law school. "His speech was incredibly disrespectful to students," said Malone. "We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?" Similar responses to keynote speakers who touched on AI at other universities highlight a pervasive sense of anxiety among today's college students. Polls show growing concern that AI will doom career plans Across campuses and in a multitude of recent surveys, students say they are trying to figure out which skills, majors and jobs won't be rendered useless by AI. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between ages 14 and 29, found increasingly negative attitudes toward AI. About half of Gen Z teens and adults say they use AI daily or weekly. But anger about the technology has increased since a year ago, while excitement and hopefulness about AI is declining. Another speaker, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield, also faced boos when she highlighted the advent of artificial intelligence during her keynote this month at the University of Central Florida. "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution," Caulfield said, as boos erupted, to her surprise. She turned around to ask those behind her, "What happened?" "OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?" said Caulfield, who is vice president of strategic alliances at the Tavistock Development Company in Orlando. "Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives," she said, prompting cheers. "And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hand," she said to more jeering. Speakers have tried to stress positives A similar response met music executive Scott Borchetta when he spoke to the graduating class of Middle Tennessee State University about how AI is shaping the music industry. "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," said Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, as the students in caps and gowns booed. "I know it. Deal with it ... Do something about it. It's a tool. Make it work for you." Schmidt offered a similar message to graduates: Their fear is rational, but they have the power to shape how AI develops. The advice didn't land well with students like Malone, who said the former Google executive's speech was more self-serving than inspirational. "It felt like a big advertisement. It felt like the longest Gemini ad ever," said Malone, noting that the choice of Schmidt as keynote speaker had also been controversial because his name appears in the Epstein files. "Everybody I was sitting by was really hooting and hollering about that, yelling, 'Epstein files! Epstein files!'" Grads already face a tough job market Part of the backlash from graduating students stems from the dismal job market they're entering. The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years. Sami Wargo just graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where an AI expert was the undergraduate commencement speaker despite a student petition demanding that the school find someone else. "Given how AI has become an increasing threat towards our jobs, especially for our graduating class, we thought it was a little bit tone deaf," said Wargo, who majored in digital media and minored in advertising. Chris Duffey, an AI evangelist at Adobe who recently used AI to "co-author" a book titled "Superhuman Innovation: Transforming Business with Artificial Intelligence," took the stage anyway. "Innovation," he told the students, "will reveal what can be done, but only you can decide what should be done." Wargo said she joined other students around her in booing his message. The 21-year-old has applied for around 30 jobs but hasn't landed one yet. Many of the job descriptions say applicants must "collaborate with AI," but "I don't know what that means," she said, noting that most of her classes banned her from using AI. Having to be reminded of all the uncertainty at their graduation, she said, was another "little dent in what was supposed to be a celebratory day." ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Students keep booing AI at graduation speeches this year

It's graduation season and that means commencement speakers are offering up their best advice for how to live a happy, healthy, and successful life. But instead of being met with welcoming smiles and engaged head nods, one topic is being met with anger and boos -- AI. In a series of recent incidents, listeners have balked as commencement speakers have either told them to embrace artificial intelligence, or have otherwise mentioned the ever-expanding technology in a speech. It happened when Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances for the Orlando-based company Tavistock, began telling the graduating class at the University of Central Florida's College of Arts and Humanities and its Nicholson School of Communication and Media that the "rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution."

Speakers At College Commencement Ceremonies Are Being Met With Boos For Bringing Up AI

"What happened?" one commencement speaker asked during her speech after students booed her for saying artificial intelligence was the next industrial revolution. Students at Glendale Community College booed the school's president when she revealed the college had used artificial intelligence to read aloud students' names during a graduation ceremony, causing several students to be missed. "Graduates, everyone who is standing, here's what's happening," Tiffany Hernandez, president of Glendale Community College, told the crowd during Friday's graduation ceremony. "We're using a new AI system as our reader." The crowd then began to boo. "So that is a lesson learned for us," Hernandez said. "What we were able to do though is each of you were able to walk the stage and get a picture, which is what I would hope would be the most meaningful." The students continued to boo. Hernandez then said students would not be able to walk the stage a second time. A spokesperson with Maricopa County Community College District told HuffPost in a statement they are sorry for the "technical issue." "While the issue was corrected during the ceremony, we are sorry for the disruption it caused during what should have been a celebratory moment for our graduates and their families," the statement read. "We have also communicated directly with graduates to apologize for the experience." "We are incredibly proud of all our graduates and are taking steps to ensure an issue like this does not occur again." With graduation ceremonies underway across the country, students are making their opinions about AI known -- usually in the form of booing whichever speaker is telling them that it's the future and to embrace it. Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances for Tavistock Development Company, was also booed during her commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for the University of Central Florida's College of Arts and Humanities on May 8. "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution," she said. The crowd immediately started booing. She turned to the other speakers onstage, looking confused and asked them, "What happened?" She then turned to the crowd and said, "OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?" She continued: "Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives," she said to roaring applause. "All right, we've got a bipolar topic here I see." Ethan Lubin, a graduate of the University of Central Florida, was in the crowd during Caulfield's speech and was one of the students who booed. "Talking about artificial intelligence at a college for arts and humanities can be, you know, a bit rough," Lubin told The New York Times, "because it kind of goes against the humanities part." Tavistock Development Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. AI has grown exponentially in modern society in the last few years, and universities have been quick to adopt it in their classrooms. Four in 10 college students said they are are encouraged to use AI, according to a 2026 study from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education. The majority of students surveyed use AI in their coursework, but for those who don't, they cited ethical reasons for their reasoning. Eric Schmidt, billionaire and former CEO of Google, was also booed during Friday's graduation ceremony for the University of Arizona after he brought up that "The architects of AI" were named Time's 2025 Person of the Year. "So today we stand on this edge of another technological transformation. One that will be larger, faster, and more consequential than what came before. It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have," Schmidt said while the crowd continued booing. "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you. There is a fear in your generation."

Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements - The Korea Times

Google CEO Eric Schmidt addresses graduates during commencement ceremonies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, May 18, 2009. AP-Yonhap As artificial intelligence casts a shadow over career prospects, it is becoming an unwelcome subject at this season's college commencements. At several campuses, graduates have interrupted speakers with stadium-wide boos when the topic turned to AI Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced repeated jeers over the weekend during his keynote address to about 10,000 University of Arizona graduates on the rise of AI. "It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have," Schmidt said, as booing began to build in the audience. "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you," Schmidt responded as the boos continued. "There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating ... and I understand that fear." To students the topic felt tone deaf, said Olivia Malone, a 22-year-old University of Arizona graduate bound for law school. "His speech was incredibly disrespectful to students," said Malone. "We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?" Similar responses to keynote speakers who touched on AI at other universities highlight a pervasive sense of anxiety among today's college students. Polls show growing concern that AI will doom career plans Across campuses and in a multitude of recent surveys, students say they are trying to figure out which skills, majors and jobs won't be rendered useless by AI. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between ages 14 and 29, found increasingly negative attitudes toward AI. About half of Gen Z teens and adults say they use AI daily or weekly. But anger about the technology has increased since a year ago, while excitement and hopefulness about AI is declining. Another speaker, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield, also faced boos when she highlighted the advent of artificial intelligence during a keynote this month at the University of Central Florida. "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution," Caulfield said, as boos erupted, to her surprise. She turned around to ask those behind her, "What happened?" "OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?" said Caulfield, who is vice president of strategic alliances at the Tavistock Development Company in Orlando. "Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives," she said, prompting cheers. "And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hand," she said to more jeering. Speakers have tried to stress positives A similar response met music executive Scott Borchetta when he spoke to the graduating class of Middle Tennessee State University about how AI is shaping the music industry. "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," said Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, as the students in caps and gowns booed. "I know it. Deal with it ... Do something about it. It's a tool. Make it work for you." Schmidt offered a similar message to graduates: Their fear is rational, but they have the power to shape how AI develops. The advice didn't land well with students like Malone, who said the former Google executive's speech was more self-serving than inspirational. "It felt like a big advertisement. It felt like the longest Gemini ad ever," said Malone, noting that the choice of Schmidt as keynote speaker had also been controversial because his name appears in the Epstein files "Everybody I was sitting by was really hooting and hollering about that, yelling, 'Epstein files! Epstein files!'" Simply appearing in the Epstein files doesn't implicate wrongdoing, and a spokesperson for Schmidt, Matthew Hiltzik, downplayed any ties between them, saying Schmidt declined a meeting with the disgraced financier and had "nothing to do with him." Grads already face a tough job market Part of the backlash from graduating students stems from the dismal job market they're entering. The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years. Sami Wargo just graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where an AI expert was the undergraduate commencement speaker despite a student petition demanding that the school find someone else. "Given how AI has become an increasing threat towards our jobs, especially for our graduating class, we thought it was a little bit tone deaf," said Wargo, who majored in digital media and minored in advertising. Chris Duffey, an AI evangelist at Adobe who recently used AI to "co-author" a book titled "Superhuman Innovation: Transforming Business with Artificial Intelligence," took the stage anyway. "Innovation," he told the students, "will reveal what can be done, but only you can decide what should be done." Wargo said she joined other students around her in booing his message. The 21-year-old has applied for around 30 jobs but hasn't landed one yet. Many of the job descriptions say applicants must "collaborate with AI," but "I don't know what that means," she said, noting that most of her classes banned her from using AI. Having to be reminded of all the uncertainty at their graduation, she said, was another "little dent in what was supposed to be a celebratory day."

Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements

As artificial intelligence casts a shadow over career prospects, it is becoming an unwelcome subject at this season's college commencements. At several campuses, graduates have interrupted speakers with stadium-wide boos when the topic turned to AI. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced repeated jeers over the weekend during his keynote address to about 10,000 University of Arizona graduates on the rise of AI. "It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have," Schmidt said, as booing began to build in the audience. "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you," Schmidt responded as the boos continued. "There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating ... and I understand that fear." To students the topic felt tone deaf, said Olivia Malone, a 22-year-old University of Arizona graduate bound for law school. "His speech was incredibly disrespectful to students," said Malone. "We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?" Similar responses to keynote speakers who touched on AI at other universities highlight a pervasive sense of anxiety among today's college students. Polls show growing concern that AI will doom career plans Across campuses and in a multitude of recent surveys, students say they are trying to figure out which skills, majors and jobs won't be rendered useless by AI. About 70 per cent of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between ages 14 and 29, found increasingly negative attitudes toward AI. About half of Gen Z teens and adults say they use AI daily or weekly. But anger about the technology has increased since a year ago, while excitement and hopefulness about AI is declining. Another speaker, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield, also faced boos when she highlighted the advent of artificial intelligence during a keynote this month at the University of Central Florida. "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution," Caulfield said, as boos erupted, to her surprise. She turned around to ask those behind her, "What happened?" "OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?" said Caulfield, who is vice president of strategic alliances at the Tavistock Development Company in Orlando. "Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives," she said, prompting cheers. "And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hand," she said to more jeering. A similar response met music executive Scott Borchetta when he spoke to the graduating class of Middle Tennessee State University about how AI is shaping the music industry. "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," said Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, as the students in caps and gowns booed. "I know it. Deal with it ... Do something about it. It's a tool. Make it work for you." Schmidt offered a similar message to graduates: Their fear is rational, but they have the power to shape how AI develops. The advice didn't land well with students like Malone, who said the former Google executive's speech was more self-serving than inspirational. "It felt like a big advertisement. It felt like the longest Gemini ad ever," said Malone, noting that the choice of Schmidt as keynote speaker had also been controversial because his name appears in the Epstein files. "Everybody I was sitting by was really hooting and hollering about that, yelling, 'Epstein files! Epstein files!'" Simply appearing in the Epstein files doesn't implicate wrongdoing, and a spokesperson for Schmidt, Matthew Hiltzik, downplayed any ties between them, saying Schmidt declined a meeting with the disgraced financier and had "nothing to do with him." Part of the backlash from graduating students stems from the dismal job market they're entering. The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years. Sami Wargo just graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where an AI expert was the undergraduate commencement speaker despite a student petition demanding that the school find someone else. "Given how AI has become an increasing threat towards our jobs, especially for our graduating class, we thought it was a little bit tone deaf," said Wargo, who majored in digital media and minored in advertising. Chris Duffey, an AI evangelist at Adobe who recently used AI to "co-author" a book titled "Superhuman Innovation: Transforming Business with Artificial Intelligence," took the stage anyway. "Innovation," he told the students, "will reveal what can be done, but only you can decide what should be done." Wargo said she joined other students around her in booing his message. The 21-year-old has applied for around 30 jobs but hasn't landed one yet. Many of the job descriptions say applicants must "collaborate with AI," but "I don't know what that means," she said, noting that most of her classes banned her from using AI. Having to be reminded of all the uncertainty at their graduation, she said, was another "little dent in what was supposed to be a celebratory day." ___